Like Lee Harvey Oswald this episode was good, but forecast that the show had run it's course and was due to end.

The show had done so well with not having a recurring villain for the previous seasons - and whilst the idea was an intriguing one - it shows signs that the filmmakers are now relying on formula. Especially with Beckett's line at the end about "Alia is not gone". She'll be back boys and girls, Mwah hah hah!

Maybe this could have worked if it was just a one off episode. Could have been quite groovy. But as it stands, it's just a surrender to the formulaic. I know that's not Donald P Bellisario's fault and he was forced to do it...

Also, the motivation that "She's just evil" didn't really sell it for me. Who were these people? How did they get their hands on what is essentially the same technology which Sam Beckett is supposed to have pioneered?

Maybe if we were told Lothos and the rival project were created by a former friend of Sam Beckett's who was aware of what was going on, and was out for revenge... that maybe I could've bought. That he stole what Beckett had created....

But no. Bad idea, badly executed. Shark jumped.

Actually it's clear that Alia is not evil, they made the point that whatever trapped her in time was. Remember that she fought back and refused to kill Sam in the end (an act we find out she was severely punished for).

As for "where did they get almost identical technology that Sam pioneered", we need to remember that an artefact of his ended up in the past (the handlink from The Leap Back) and also in the directly previous episode, Sam reveals his project to the Government under Sodium Pentathol. It's quite possible that one or both of these could have ended up in the hands of the wrong people...